29th Aug, 2017

Amy Christie - Artist Exhibition from September to November 2017

When:

Environmental Arts are pleased to announce an upcoming exhbition by the artist Amy Christie.  She will be exhibiting on Level 1 of the main hospital street from September through to the end of November where you will be able to see her work in 11 double sided cases representing a rich variety of her work.

Artist Biography:

Amy Christie was born in Leicestershire in 1977. She graduated from the University of East Anglia with a BA Hons in Language, Literature and Art and was awarded international diplomas in languages and translation from a year studying at the University of Pascal Paoli in Corsica. She travelled extensively throughout her teens and twenties, often travelling alone or working in a country to fully immerse herself in the culture.

Amy spent the first 8 years of her career as a translator of French and Italian, with her artwork taking a backseat due to time constraints. However, a move to Cornwall in 2010 led to a shift in career to art publishing and also afforded her the time to take up her brushes again and develop her style and technique. She says, "while foreign languages were an integral part of my life, my long-standing obsession with art grew in intensity until the inevitable happened and I began translating not words onto paper, but ideas and emotions onto canvas.”

“Over the years, I've spent a great deal of time in Italy studying beautiful yet time-worn frescoes and paintings, which ignited a passion for recreating this ancient look. I achieve this with a variety of glazes and textures in combination with layers of colour, which are then partially removed and pulled back to reveal hidden layers. I’m drawn to bold, vibrant colours and often illuminate the piece with gold leaf, which I fragment and distress.”

The overall effect is a painting that appears to have been subjected to time's ravaging hands, but has the vibrancy and clarity of a modern piece. “My compositions are born from observations of pattern, whether man-made or natural, such as a beautiful fabric, a grouping of flowers or a ceramic vase with an interesting glaze. Flowers, my current focus, act as a wonderful vehicle for colour and I revel in the creative process of selecting, mixing and working into them to create a piece that sings.”